ODIOUS DEBT! How the SLPP Government Has Mortgaged Sierra Leone’s Future While the People Pay the Price

By Hassan Sesay

Since assuming office in 2018, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government has cloaked itself in the rhetoric of reform, fiscal discipline, and economic recovery. Yet beneath this narrative lies a far more troubling reality: an aggressive dependence on IMF and World Bank financing, ballooning public debt, rising taxes, and deepening hardship for ordinary Sierra Leoneans.

This pattern aligns squarely with what political economists and international law scholars describe as odious debt—debt incurred by a ruling elite, mismanaged or siphoned through corruption, and ultimately repaid by citizens who neither consented to it nor benefited from it.

Today, Sierra Leone is not merely indebted; it is trapped in a vicious cycle where foreign credit finances government failure, while the burden of repayment is shifted onto the poorest households.

Borrowing Without Accountability: A Pattern Since 2018

When the SLPP came to power in 2018, it inherited an economy facing challenges—but also one with clear opportunities for reform. Instead of prioritizing fiscal discipline, institutional strengthening, and production-driven growth, the government embarked on an unprecedented borrowing spree, relying heavily on multilateral lenders to finance recurrent expenditure and plug persistent budget deficits.

Between 2018 and 2024, Sierra Leone entered multiple financing arrangements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including several Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programs, while simultaneously drawing heavily on World Bank budget support and development policy financing.

According to publicly available IMF and World Bank disclosures:

• Sierra Leone has received hundreds of millions of US dollars in IMF concessional loans since 2018.
• IMF disbursements under ECF arrangements alone exceed US$300 million, combining completed programs and subsequent reviews.
• The World Bank approved tens of millions of dollars annually in credits and grants, including an US$80 million macroeconomic support package in late 2024.These figures are not disputed. What is rightly disputed is what the country has to show for them.

Debt Explosion Under SLPP Watch

Despite repeated assurances of “debt sustainability,” Sierra Leone’s public debt expanded dramatically under the SLPP administration.

• By 2021–2022, the debt-to-GDP ratio had risen above 90%, placing the country at high risk of debt distress.
• Domestic debt surged alongside external borrowing, increasing interest costs and crowding out private-sector credit.
• Debt servicing began consuming an alarming share of government revenue—at times between one-quarter and one-third of total domestic revenue.

This is not responsible governance. It is fiscal recklessness disguised as reform.

Even more troubling is the absence of meaningful structural transformation. Manufacturing remains weak. Youth unemployment remains stubbornly high. Agriculture is under-capitalized. Infrastructure investments lack transparency and measurable returns.The debt grew—but the country did not.

Taxes for the Poor, Comfort for the Powerful

Every IMF agreement signed by the SLPP government has come with conditions—and those conditions have produced one consistent outcome: the people pay.

To service mounting debt, the government has repeatedly resorted to:

• Higher indirect taxes
• Increased fees and levies
• Removal of subsidies
• Cuts and constraints on social spending

These measures disproportionately burden:

• Market women
• Informal sector workers
• Low-income households
• Small businesses

Meanwhile, political elites remain insulated. Luxury vehicles continue to populate government fleets. Political appointments proliferate. Oversight institutions remain weak or compromised. Corruption allegations surface repeatedly, yet accountability remains rare.This is the classic hallmark of odious debt:borrowing enjoyed by the elite, repaid by the masses.

Where Did the Money Go?

After more than six years of sustained IMF and World Bank financing, Sierra Leoneans are entitled to ask fundamental questions:

• Where is the money?
• Where are the hospitals proportionate to the loans contracted?
• Where are the schools that justify the debt?
• Where is the expanded industrial base?
• Where are the jobs for the youth?

The SLPP government responds with slogans and press releases, but hard evidence of transformational impact remains glaringly absent.

Civil society organizations have repeatedly raised concerns about:

• Weak public financial management
• Poor project monitoring and evaluation
• Limited parliamentary scrutiny of loan agreements
• Lack of transparency in debt contracting

Yet borrowing continues—as if debt itself were a development strategy.

The Complicity of International Lenders

The IMF and World Bank cannot escape scrutiny.

Despite acknowledging governance risks and corruption vulnerabilities in their own reports, these institutions have continued to:

• Disburse funds
• Approve new credit lines
• Endorse fiscal frameworks that punish citizens more than officials

This is governance-blind lending—a practice where macroeconomic checklists are satisfied while political reality is ignored.

By lending into environments of weak accountability, international financial institutions become enablers of elite mismanagement, even as they demand sacrifice from the population.

Odious Debt in Practice, Not Theory

The doctrine of odious debt holds that when:

• Debt is incurred without public consent
• Funds do not benefit the population
• Creditors are aware of these conditions

Then the moral obligation to repay such debt is deeply questionable.

By this definition, much of Sierra Leone’s post-2018 borrowing fits the pattern.

The SLPP government has:

• Negotiated loans with minimal public consultation
• Failed to demonstrate proportional public benefit
• Shifted repayment onto struggling citizens

This is not development finance.This is intergenerational theft.

A Future Mortgaged

Perhaps the most tragic consequence of this debt binge is its impact on future generations.Children not yet born will inherit:

• IMF repayment schedules
• World Bank credit obligations
• Shrinking fiscal space
• Reduced national sovereignty over economic policy

Every Leone collected through regressive taxation to service these debts is a Leone not spent on nutrition, education, or opportunity.

The SLPP government has chosen credit over competence, borrowing over reform, and appearance over substance.

A Call for Accountability and Resistance

Sierra Leone does not need more loans.It needs:

• Transparent governance
• Aggressive anti-corruption enforcement
• Domestic revenue reforms that target wealth—not poverty
• Robust parliamentary and public oversight of all borrowing

The people must demand:

• Full disclosure of loan terms
• Independent audits of IMF- and World Bank-funded programs
• Personal accountability for officials who mismanage public funds

Debt must serve development—not politics.

Enough Is Enough

The continued reliance of the SLPP government on IMF and World Bank financing, amid rising taxes and worsening hardship, represents a profound betrayal of public trust. This is not merely poor policy; it is systemic mismanagement with lasting consequences.

History will judge harshly any administration that borrowed in the name of the people, squandered the proceeds, and left the bill on the kitchen table of the poor.

This is odious debt—and it must be named, challenged, and resisted.